Aleksandrovsky Sad

Aleksandrovsky Sad (Russian: , IPA: [lksandrfskj sat]) (English: Alexander Garden) is a station of the Filyovskaya line of the Moscow Metro. It was designed by A. I. Gontskevich and S. Sulin and opened on 15 May 1935 along with the first stage of the metro. The station is situated under the southern part of the Vozdvizhenka Street (which was then called Kominterna—hence the original name) next to the building of the Russian State Library. The northern of the two side platforms of the station works during rush hours only.

Originally the station was not included in the plans for the first stage due to its closeness to the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina station. When a change to the plans was introduced with a new station it was decided not to augment the design of the planned large tunnel with parallel tracks separated by a row of columns, but to modify it by increasing its height and building platforms on the sides in what is known as a Parisian Style. Construction began in July 1934, and immediately encountered problems. Under the street, only 1.5–2 metres away from the proposed subway tunnels, was a massive sewage pipe of fragile ceramic, with an outflow of two million buckets. In such conditions, even a slight vibration in the soil would have caused a serious accident. A few solutions to the problems were proposed, either to temporary turn off the sewer system and deposit the massed water via a gully on the Arbatskaya square into the Moskva River, or to relay the sanitation into metal pipes. Moscow Soviet discarded both ideas, the former out of sanitary and hygienic interests, the second one because that would have required closing off the whole street for a few weeks to the traffic. Engineer Kulbakh came up with a more innovative solution – relaying the collector not from trenches dug up from the surface, but from those in which the walls of the tunnels were built. Works on a shared 40-metre stretch were carried out with superior precision and accuracy, thus preventing the collector to be damaged, with no injuries or streets being closed off. For the remaining part of the station very little problems took place and in record times on 31 January 1935 the station was completed. The unique circumstances which resulted in station is accredited to its current appearance with side platforms that are curved and three rows of octagonal columns. The two outer rows of columns, which run along the centre line of each platform, are faced with white marble. The third row of columns, painted white and resting on square, black-tiled piers to account for the difference in height between the track bed and the platforms, runs along the main axis of the station and separates the two tracks. Passenger cross over a central bridge that was added later.

For entrances and exits as well as transfers to the close by station Biblioteka Imeni Lenina, a temporary vestibule was built (architects P. Faidysh and S. Lavrov), and was situated on the corner of Vozdvizhenka and Mokhovaya streets (currently an entrance to an understreet subway is located there). A more permanent vestibule was planned to be included inside the massive building of the Lenin library. One more vestibule was planned on the western end exiting to a subway underpass across the recently demolished Voyentorg building. Staircases from the platforms still exist and go to rooms that are used for service needs. No direct transfer to Biblioteka Imeni Lenina originally existed, that was because on the first stage trains went from Sokolniki to Smolenskaya (Kievskaya after 1937) and then onto Park Kultury one after the next. Although transfer corridors were completed soon after, it is unlikely that they were used prior to the opening of the Pokrovskiy radius in 1938 which al

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